Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon has died.

JRS said:
Neil Armstrong shut down the orbital thrusters and brought up the re-entry system, stabilising the craft. It turned out that one of the thrusters in the orbital system was stuck firing, possibly due to an electrical short. The mission was over, but they'd at least survived.
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One of the reasons he was chosen as the commander of Apollo 11 was his ability to deal with situations like that. There was also the time when the LLTV training aircraft (the famous Flying Bedstead) went out of control and he had to eject - if he'd have done so a fraction of a second later he wouldn't have made it out alive. A couple of hours later he was back in his office doing paperwork, as if escaping death was all part of the day job.

Also the time in Korea when his F9F was hit by enemy fire and lost part of the wing in a collision with a powerline - Armstrong calmly flew the thing back to friendly South Korea before ejecting.
 
Still find it shocking that there is no proper picture of HIM on the moon...?? I didnt even know about this. The only imagery of Armstrong on the lunar surface is the reflection of him on Aldrins visor. (??)

How did this even happen??? Why didnt the other astronaut take the cam and shoot a pic of Armstrong??
 
KatanaDV20 said:
Still find it shocking that there is no proper picture of HIM on the moon...?? I didnt even know about this. The only imagery of Armstrong on the lunar surface is the reflection of him on Aldrins visor. (??)

How did this even happen??? Why didnt the other astronaut take the cam and shoot a pic of Armstrong??
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The camera was mounted to his suit to stop him losing it on the surface and make it easier.

550x-hasselblad-space-camer.jpg
 
RIP Moon man, I just hope he gets the peace he sought out for, such a shame he became a recluse and found it so hard to deal with his achievements publically...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
KatanaDV20 said:
Still find it shocking that there is no proper picture of HIM on the moon...?? I didnt even know about this. The only imagery of Armstrong on the lunar surface is the reflection of him on Aldrins visor. (??)

How did this even happen??? Why didnt the other astronaut take the cam and shoot a pic of Armstrong??
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There are some, I will find them.

orderoftheflame said:
The camera was mounted to his suit to stop him losing it on the surface and make it easier.

550x-hasselblad-space-camer.jpg
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This representation is correct, of course I believe this is an image of Alan Bean, Apollo 12 ?
 
ps3ud0 said:
RIP Moon man, I just hope he gets the peace he sought out for, such a shame he became a recluse and found it so hard to deal with his achievements publically...

ps3ud0 :cool:
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There's nothing wrong with being self effacing. I can imagine public adoration would get a little tiring after a while, so I don't blame him one bit for withdrawing from the public eye.

We still have Buzz Aldrin, who has remained a public figure and an outspoken advocate for continued manned exploration of the solar system.
 
KatanaDV20 said:
How did this even happen??? Why didnt the other astronaut take the cam and shoot a pic of Armstrong??
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I think Buzz was generally a bit busy taking photos of the thing that they were up there to visit. You know, the Moon?

;)
 
Meridian said:
One odd irony: as I understand it, it was supposed to be Aldrin down first. But then NASA realised that he would have to climb over Armstrong to get out, so they let Armstrong go first. I read Shadow of the Moon recently, which gave a real impression of just how dangerous the mission was. The LEM was built to be as light as possible. It was basically just a thin metal shell with instruments inside. There were no couches, so the two astronauts just lay on the floor for the descent. It wasn't pressurised, and the walls were so thin that they flexed when the engine fired.

It's not often in life that you see history being bade, and know that it is, and be right. I sat up and watched the landings, and everyone knew that was what was happening. A genuine legend, a modest man with much to be immodest about, and great loss.


M
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The LEM was pressurised I think, and they stood up when they landed.
 
scrlk said:
The LEM was pressurised I think, and they stood up when they landed.
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I'm pretty sure it wasn't, if for no other reason than the fact that pressurising it would have added significantly to the weight. Also, the lunar module did not have an airlock, so as soon as they opened the door, all that air would have escaped. That's just wasteful, considering how every other aspect of the mission was performed with such slim margins.
 
SlyReaper said:
I'm pretty sure it wasn't, if for no other reason than the fact that pressurising it would have added significantly to the weight. Also, the lunar module did not have an airlock, so as soon as they opened the door, all that air would have escaped. That's just wasteful, considering how every other aspect of the mission was performed with such slim margins.
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The LEM was pressurised.

After landing the astronauts put on their EVA suits and de-pressurise the vehicle ready for egress. The same procedure was used for all the moon landings. It would have been impractical for the astronauts to land the LEM in their full EVA suit.


By the way, for anyone wanting an excellent overview of the entire Apollo program, check out the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. It's an excellent series that follows the manned space program from the first Mercury / Gemini missions, right through to Apollo 17. It's very much in the style of the Apollo 13 movie (This is essentially to Apollo 13 what Band of Brothers is to Saving Private Ryan). Many of the astronauts involved in Gemini/Apollo were consultants, and much of the dialogue is straight from the recorded conversations, so it's about as "true to life" as you're likely to get.

Well worth a watch.
 
King Damager said:
None of my friends commented on my status, and only one other friend posted it on FB...

I need new friends.
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I spent an hour this morning deep in thought about Armstrong, the space programme, whether the costs were justified, whether we should explore more, what it means to achieve something like that etc. I didn't post about it on FB, or reply to any comments my friends had made.

Just because you don't post about it on FB, doesn't mean you don't care.
 
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